Customer Reviews

Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book did a nice job of integrating Buddhist thought with modern psychology -- which is getting more Buddhist all the time! The writing was beautiful. Only trouble is, I always reach for books like this when I feel I need help, can't do it alone, etc., and feel absolutely inadeqaute to the rigours of the self-help processes recommended. I would recommend this book more for practitioners than for those of us limping along. Meanwhile, I will try to simply "chop wood, carry water."

Tara Bennett-Goleman writes that "this book is about seeing ourselves as we genuinely are, not as we seem on first glance as viewed through the filters of our habitual assumptions and emotional patterns" (p. 4). The concept of "emotional alchemy" allows for "the possibility that our bewilderment and turmoil might blossom into insightful clarity" (p. 7); it is about "bringing intelligence to our emotional lives" (p. 144). Bennett-Goleman is a psychotherapist who studied with Dr. Jeffrey Young in schema therapy (p. 9), and with Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusettes Medical School in mindfulness training (p. 10). She also practiced meditation with S. N. Goenka in Bodh Gaya, India (p. 36).

This book is recommended "for people who are functioning in their lives, but who suffer from self-defeating emotional habits" (p. 15). Although it offers an excellent introduction to psychology from a Buddhist perspective, the psychology presented here "offers a scientific approach to inner work, a theory of mind that anyone, Buddhist or not, can draw insights and benefit from" (p. 8). Buddhism, Bennett-Goleman adds, contains "an entire system of psychology--a mind science--that can be of value to anyone" (p. 65). Buddhist teachings encourage us to recognize our suffering, to free ourselves from that suffering, and to follow a path free from that suffering. This is the path of Bennett-Goleman's EMOTIONAL ALCHEMY--"a path that offers a gradual freedom from the hold of what Buddhism calls 'afflictive' emotions" (p. 12).

Buddhist teachings tell us that our "most insidious enemies are internal--our afflictive states of mind" (p. 300) Bennett-Goleman examines a number of familiar schemas ("negative life patterns") in her book, including abandonment (pp. 75-77), deprivation (pp. 77-79), subjugation (pp. 79-81), mistrust (pp. 81-83), unlovability (pp. 83-85), exclusion (pp. 87-88), vulnerability (pp. 88-90), failure (pp. 90-91), perfectionism (pp. 91-93) and entitlement (pp. 93-95). "Deep beneath vulnerability and deprivation," she observes, "lies a pool of profound sadness; beneath mistrust and subjugation is a smoldering anger; beneath vulnerability and social exclusion, and abandonment lurks fear. An anxious self-doubt drives perfectionism and failure alike. And at the core of entitlement very often lies shame" (p. 168). Mindfulness practice allows us to identify these hidden emotional patterns, and when we direct our "spotlight of awareness" toward these schemas, we experience opportunities for transformation from the distorted thinking and emotional chaos of our lives (pp. 172-73).

Bennett-Goleman also shows how the "schema tango" (p. 210) of any relationship can become an "emotional battleground," but those relationships (including parent-child relationships, pp. 225-40) also "offer an especially ripe opportunity to let us do inner work that will free us from the grip of our schemas" (p. 207).

EMOTIONAL ALCHEMY is more than a self-help book, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in what it means to be human, or in personal growth. Although she is a qualified psychotherapist, Bennett-Goleman admits she is not an expert on Buddhism. The fascinating journey "to inner freedom" set forth in her book travels the psychological path only, unlike path of spiritual alchemy, which Bennett-Goleman concedes is "beyond this book" (p. 263).

G. Merritt

If you often question why you react to situations the way you do, this book will help you to see what some of those reasons might be. It introduces Schemas, which I'd never heard of until I read this book. I have done a lot of reading on healing the inner child, healing emotional trauma, etc..., and while many of them have made sense to me, none of them truly resonated with me where it counts, which is in the heart. The mind can gain all the knowledge it wants, however having that knowledge can only take you so far.

If you have read other self help books and they haven't connected with you, or you are still looking for 'something' you should definitely give this one a try. It does tend to repeat information throughout the book, which makes you want to put the book down, but then you get little tidbits of information or examples of the situations people have been in and you just want to keep reading because you could miss something that will click with you. These little tidbits give you the ah-ha moments of understanding, and I didn't want to miss any of them.

Out of all the books I have read on healing trauma, and believe me, there have been tons, this one is the only one that has really got right down to it and pointed out what's really going on. Or at least, it's the only one that helped me to see it.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone hoping to understand themselves better. Not just those looking to heal past trauma or emotional healing.

This type of a book is not read for its entertainment value, that it obvious. The depth of the content is a primary consideration, and in the case of this book, the material is not lacking in depth, borrowing from a subject as rich and profound as the human mind itself - Buddhist phychology. However, the message of healing through mindfulness gets lost in the hopeless wandering aroung in circles, without ever really getting anywhere. Where is this book going? By page 130 it was still not very clear. This seems more like a dry psychology textbook, filled with chapter after chapter of research results, case histories and impressive technical "buzzwords", than an inspiring and sympathetic Buddhist teaching on how to heal the emotions. I peronally have found Tich Nhat Hanh's wrtitings much more "Buddhist", in a sense, because they are warm, non-technical, practical and consise. The Dalai Lama himself has written a number of excellent books on the subject.

I thought this was a wonderful book, and very helpful. Surprised by the negative comments about its length, I found almost everything very helpful and not too redundant. The author's clear explication of Buddhist theory and practice was truly an excellent addition to the book.

I was troubled a tiny tiny bit by her anthropomorphizing of schemas, as if they were evil beasts dwelling within us and pulling our strings. But that's okay. It is just a metaphor.

This book was recommended to be at a time when I was going through some personal difficulties and it it was able to teach me to be mindful of all the powerful emotions I was going through, and to hold on to them long enough to turn strong emotions into insights, and insights into solutions.

What the book needs though is a re-edit. I always appreciate material written with an economy of words better. Nonetheless, this one's worth buying, and keeping.

I enjoyed this book and learned from it. This may be because I am very interested in cognitive psychology. This book provides a new twist in that area with a Buddhist point of view. My only complaint about this book is that (in my opinion) the material could have been presented more effectively if a third of the book was trimmed.

this book is very insightful in many ways. It makes the philosphy of Bhuddism easier to understand for the westerner. The schemas she discusses are excellent. I bought the audio version also.

It has a forward by the Dali Lama, enough said.

Buy this book for whatever makes you crazy. Well worth reading twice. No, it's not for someone who is educationally challenged, there is an academic flair here, but for those only remotely familiar with psychology 101 or the basic methods of Buddhism, this book is a winner.

Bennett-Goleman breaks down the reasons why we get tripped up and trapped by our emotions in a way that I haven't seen presented this clear since "Awakening the Buddha Within," by Lama Surya Das. She takes the tenets of Buddhism one step beyond peace to tie it in with why we respond to life as we do, and how to change the automatic pilot of our negative emotional reactions. I found this book to be thorough in explanation, deeply insightful, comprehensive, very well written, very well framed, and extremely helpful to understanding myself and those I love. I'm buying a copy for every member of my dysfunctional family!

I found this book to be very helpful and informative with getting down to the core of why we do what we do and our own emotional patters. It helps to understand ourselves and what we can do to change them, how to help heal ourselves. Also helpful with calming the mind and re-centering ourselves.
Very good.